question 2.

evaluation Q3.

FOCUS GROUP.

As a group, we organised a focus group whereby we gathered a group of people within out target audience age to get immediate feedback on our finished products.Using the recording camera, we recorded them giving their initial thoughts, creating a basis of hightlights and critisims of our tasks. I think this is a more realistic way of getting true feedback, as with questionnaires they are able to write out in a stylistic way, whereas with this form of feedback it is immediate. While we get their true opinions, we were also baring in mind that they dont have an idea of the conventions we followed and why. However, this process was very beneficial, as we were able to see where we went wrong, and where there was room for improvements if any.



GENRE.

The focus group were asked "which aspects of the trailer do you think identified it as a horror?" to which the second person replied "the jumping between scenes" in reference to the montage of shots at the end. This shows that the editing stages were vital, as the audience were able to identify it through that alone, regardless of the other horror-like conventions featured such as blood, death, weapons etc.

Another person commented on the music being "dark" suggesting it was fitting to our genre, and easily identifiable. It was suggested that the concept of an "empty village" was typically found in horror films, and that was also how they were identifying the genre.



INITIAL THOUGHTS.

the first person to speak claimed that although the music was very fitting, it "gave away the entire plot". This suggests that we may have included to many key elements of our plot, however another member of the focus group argued that because it wasnt in chronological order, it wasnt to revealing, and enticed the audience to want to know what happens next. A member of the focus group pointed out sarahs role as being a key image for them, as she was holding a knife with blood dripping down her face. They suggested that she "might be into defacing herself" which isnt entirely true- but is still positive feedback as this is an example of our plot not being to revealing, as the audience still do not know why this has happened to sarah and what her role in the film is.  Although not all members of the focus group agreed with the first point, they did point out that the beginning of the trailer was more abstract than the rest of it, however did go on further to say that it was enticing and overall a good film trailer.



ICONIC IMAGES.

It was immediately pointed out that the match dropping on the floor was significant to the trailer. they enjoyed the "old film" effect that we applied, and instantly understood that they were viewing this from the past, which is what we had hoped the audience would first understand. Lewis tied up screaming was also pointed out, adding "this shows the genre is more extreme horror rather than the usual subtle 'il scare you' sort of horror". The first member of the focus group said that the iconic image for him was 'mark screaming "run" as it was unexpected, and cut immediately too something else, making the audience want to know more.



ANCILLARY TASKS.

due to complications, i was unable to obtain recorded feedback for my other tasks, however i did recieve some written feedback after the focus group had been conducted. both images had been described as "striking"  although the match did cause some confusion among some members of the focus group in my poster. However, I took this as a positive, as it created the code of enigma i had hoped for, and left the audience guessing. It was noted that the taglines on the magazine were "effective" and "realistic" however they were confused on why i had chosen to outline my magazine in red- but i did this as i noticed it was a convention on Empire magazine.

Q4.

Q1.

main influence in my film poster.

I used the idea of the flame from the shutter island poster, and fused it with my own ideas and made it relevant to my plot. I slightly changed it, as i didnt include any images of the mental asylum that we used in our trailer, however the general layout of this poster played a huge role when it came to attempting to make my poster look as realistic as possible.

Defaced Trailer - Focus Group Feedback

Defaced trailer.

final movie poster.

 My poster was heavily influenced by the Shutter Island movie poster, which features the main character holding a flame, as does my main character in my poster. I chose this image as it looks skeletal, and i feel it reflects the title well. I like that the flame illuminates the face, yet hides it at the same time, so it is unclear as to who it is.

I feel that the tagline goes with the title and image well. It has various connotations with "defaced" such as who or what is getting defaced, why, and how the person in the image is related to it. the tagline plays on the plot of the film, and doesnt reveal to much on who or what is the threat.

We created our title in photoshop, as it is unique to this film. We were able to create a blood dripping effect, which depicts the idea of being "defaced" well and clearly defines the horror genre.
I featured promotional devices using social networking sites, and put the logo for facebook and twitter onto the poster, and a hastag. I also added a website called "www.defacedthemovie.com" as an addition advertisement.
We chose for our release date to be in october, as Halloween is during this month, which would entice our target audience further, into wanting to watch a horror film at this paticular time of year.

final draft of film magazine.

From my first draft, i have added various other taglines, such as an "oscars special" and "movie of the month". I tried to be as conventional as possible, making use of banners, a splash and other taglines advertising films.
I created a "plus" section as this is a common convention i found in empire magazine. I changed the image, and i believe it is far stronger than before, as it is an image of the character Lily with blood and skin dripping off her face.

I positioned the title "defaced" underneath the dripping of the blood on the face, as we edited blood dripping onto the title. It looks as though the blood is continuing to drip down the page onto the title, which is what i wanted to achieve.

 I chose to use a character as a main image rather than the actor as I thought that it would be more easily recognisable to the reader, especially with her skin peeling and blood on her face.

I chose to use a "plus" section to distiguish different areas of the taglines. I featured other genres in the taglines such as super heroes, to make it clear that it is a film magazine that engages in all genres, not just horror.